Saturday, July 09, 2016

If there's still anyone I actually associate with who cries "All Lives Matter" in reply to "Black Lives Matter" - let me try to explain what you're misunderstanding. It's already assumed in society that white lives matter. The way we speak of white lives and white deaths is as though they really matter, however - when a black life is lost, it seems to matter less to people.

We actually have to show pictures of a black victim's family and try and tell stories and convince people that a black victim was a real human being with a whole real life - and not just some waste lazy useless gang stereotype of a black person. That so many black people are often seen as "just people that get shot sometimes" because they are black and no good in the world anyways. That so many black people are seen as n**gers. That's really how so many see black people even if they can't admit it. As though being shot is just part of being black, and just "part of what happens" to black people - like it's ok. Like the crime in black neighborhoods - well there's so much of it so you know, that's just whatever no big deal. It comes on the news like white noise. BUT if a white person dies in a similar fashion - it's tragic, easy to relate to, it's moving - because white lives matter so very much. Even if you don't feel this way - you KNOW SOMEONE who feels this way. It's real and it's out there.

Black lives are seen as expendable in so many ways, even as bad guys in movies. Black characters in film and television are often "token" versus central to the story.

These are some examples of how people treat black lives as if they DON'T matter.

So since black lives are treated differently than white lives - and as we have more and more video evidence of something that's been going on for decades - that cops way too easily kill black people without just cause because they aren't as concerned to preserve those lives, feel more threatened by black people, and fail to see them as human versus criminal, or quite simply make mistakes that cost lives - and the cops are not prosecuted for it -- there's a very important fight to say BLACK LIVES DO MATTER!

Does this make sense to you? Do you understand?

Please don't ever say "all lives matter" because it only shows that you don't understand the meaning of "black lives matter" - it's not at all saying that other lives don't matter. It's saying that black people as a group are treated like they don't matter - and even in life or death situations they have to fight to be seen as human.

And also OF COURSE Blue Lives Matter because cop killings have a long history of being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law with very respectful and elaborate funerals paid for by the state. There's no need to say Blue Lives Matter because we live in a world where we treat Cops in a special manner and we treat their deaths as the tragedies they are - already.